Hi Peter.. I've used just about every distro of Linux out there and know what your going through, however if you do not have time to compile every single little thing then Debian/Ubuntu is the only way to go but you have to keep in mind that when you install a server based OS all of the unneeded programs have been removed to give you the lean server you need. If you have time to compile everything then LFS/Gentoo is the only way to go as you get software designed for your specific system. As far as the firewall issue goes if your building this box as a firewall only have a look at IPCop its a decent Linux based Firewall distro, if not, well, I don't think its a smart idea to have a firewall as well as a server on the same box. I've since chosen Debian for a server and if you need any help in understanding the apt-package manager feel free to email me and I'd be happy to help it really is a decent package manager once you get to know it.
Chris.. > I finally put together another PC out of spare parts to use as a server; > up to this point my only linux box acted as server, game machine, > personal workstation, etc. and it drove my family crazy when I had to > reboot because I was experimenting. Now I can experiment on my own > computer while the server keeps working. > > I figured, I only have this weekend to get the job done so I really > don't have time for a full lfs build. Instead, I looked for something I > could use out of the box with minimal configuration - give it the IP > address of my internal network, let DHCP figure out the rest, and I'm > good to go. > > Not. > > I picked Ubuntu because I've read good things about it and they even > have an installation CD specifically designed for acting as a server. I > guess installation wasn't too bad - certainly easier than that of the > Evil Empire - but then configuring stuff was impossible. I didn't know > where anything was! Despite its being billed as a server edition there > is no firewall included in the installation. The docs recommend an > easy-to-configure iptables interface called Firestarter... but that's a > gtk interface and because I went with the server edition, I didn't get > gtk. > > There's no package management so whenever I ran apt-get I had no idea > what it installed or where it put things. If I changed my mind about > something and ran apt-get uninstall, it would only uninstall the one > package I named and none of the 64 dependencies that went with it. > > I need to forward ipsec packets to my work machine so I can connect to > my employer's VPN server, but the kernel is not compiled with ipsec > forwarding. > > At that point I gave up on apt-get and used fpt to fetch a new kernel > source... only to find that I can't build anything because the kernel > headers aren't installed. I ran apt-get install > kernel-something-or-other-headers and it didn't put them > in /usr/include; it put them in /usr/src where I have to run make - but > make won't install the kernel headers because it won't run without the > kernel headers installed! > > Next weekend, I wipe out the ubuntu partitions and start fresh with LFS. > I learned my lesson. > > -- > Peter B. Steiger > Cheyenne, WY > > > -- > http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/lfs-support > FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/faq.html > Unsubscribe: See the above information page > -- http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/lfs-support FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/lfs/faq.html Unsubscribe: See the above information page
